Hogwarts years

First year

At the start of his first year, Crabbe was sorted into SlytherinHouse, along with his friends Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle, both of whom were also the sons of Death Eaters. Harry Potter noticed that Crabbe and Goyle seemed to act as bodyguards for Malfoy. When Draco challenged Harry to a duel, he selected Crabbe as his Second, although the challenge was merely a ruse to get Harry in trouble for being out of bed after hours.

Third year

On the way to Hogwarts on his third year of education, Crabbe along with his friends stepped into Harry Potter's compartment to bully him. However, they could not act on their wishes as the new Defence Against the Dark Artsprofessor, Remus Lupin, was in the compartment, sleeping. Early in the school year it was quite clear that the Dementors guarding Hogwarts from Sirius Black were feared by Harry, and so during a Quidditch match, Crabbe and his friends put their cloaks up and pretended to be Dementors in an attempt to scare Harry, which it did and Harry cast a Patronus charm in response. Goyle was later humiliated when Harry (under his Invisibility cloak) defended his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley by throwing snowballs at him. Crabbe's attempts to scare Harry later in the year were foiled, as he had too much protection from students and staff.

After Harry caused the arrest of Crabbe's father, Mr. Crabbe and Lucius Malfoy, Malfoy's father, they attempted to ambush him on the Hogwarts Express, but were jinxed so thoroughly and variously by members of the D.A. that they were transfigured into large slugs. A similar event had occurred at the end of the previous year, when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George all used different hexes on them on the train.

Sixth year

During the 1996–1997 school year, Malfoy had him and Goyle turn into girls via Polyjuice Potion, to be able to guard the Room of Requirement while Malfoy was repairing the Vanishing Cabinet inside. Whenever someone walked by, Crabbe or Goyle would drop an object, making a loud noise that would alert Malfoy not to come out. Crabbe was displeased at being made to do this, especially since Malfoy refused to tell him what he was doing inside. Once, Crabbe started to argue with Malfoy about this.

At the end of the school year, he and Goyle were left feeling lonely, after their leader and friend Draco Malfoy left the school just before the end of the term.

Seventh year

"We’re supposed to practise the Cruciatus Curse on people who’ve earned detentions… I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time they’ve ever been top in anything, I expect."

During Crabbe's seventh year at Hogwarts, two new professors were appointed; Amycus and Alecto Carrow. Amycus was the Dark Arts professor, while Alecto was the Muggle Studies professor. They both liked to punish students, torturing them; they also ordered the other students to torture the punished ones with the Cruciatus Curse; it is noted that Crabbe and Goyle were among the few ones who loved it. It was also the very first time they got top grades in something.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy stayed at Hogwarts and they ambushed Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Room of Requirement. It turned out that Crabbe had become a competent Dark wizard, thanks to the coaching of the Death Eater Amycus Carrow, seeing that he was capable of performing Avada Kedavra, which was claimed by Barty Crouch Jr. (while posing as Alastor Moody) to require a "powerful bit of magic behind it." It, like all the Unforgivable Curses, also needed, as Harry himself proved with Bellatrix, a genuine desire to injure, maim or kill behind it to be effective, and Crabbe frequently demonstrated this level of malevolence.

Initially, Harry mocked Crabbe and the others, thinking they were merely here to make fools of themselves in an attempt to capture Harry himself. However, when Crabbe aimed to kill, Harry was greatly infuriated. For the first time, Crabbe defied Draco, stating "you an' yer dad are finished," implying a great deal of knowledge regarding the Malfoy family's falling out of favour with Voldemort. In the end, Crabbe conjured Fiendfyre to kill the trio, but as he failed to learn how to stop it, it apparently killed him and destroyed the entire Room of Requirement before he could escape. His death is not seen by any of the students who escaped, except for Malfoy and Goyle, and it is presumed that it killed him by the others, as no one saw him exit the room. Ironically, his use of Fiendfyre also destroyed Ravenclaw's diadem, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, due to the sheer destructive power of the spell. Ron reflected that such an action might have made him feel sorry for Crabbe's death if he hadn't been trying to kill them when he used it.

Physical description

Crabbe is large and very fat, with a thick neck. He has gorilla-like arms and a flat nose, and wears a pudding bowl-style haircut. He is very mean and very stupid, which makes him little more than a "follower" of Malfoy. However, in spite of his overweight, fat physique, he is an avid runner, as shown when he, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy and Goyle were running away from the Fiendfyre. Crabbe is told to have outstripped the rest of them, even Harry, who is very quick.

Personality and traits

Angelina Johnson: "...I was always surprised Derrick and Bole managed to find their way onto the pitch without signposts."

Harry Potter: "Crabbe and Goyle are in the same mould."

— Angelina and Harry before the first Quidditch match of the season[src]

Crabbe is entirely lacking in introspection or inquisitiveness, and is very greedy and gluttonous, eating at the feasts for longer than anyone and leaving with large loads of cakes to still be eaten. He could be described as enormously fat and pig-like, like Dudley Dursley, but even more thuggish and stupid. Despite his large frame, Crabbe has a surprisingly soft voice, though he rarely speaks that Harry never noted his tone of voice until Crabbe's last battle. Crabbe seems unable to make up his own mind or to see things his own way; he is generally told what to do. Nonetheless he is depicted as slightly more intelligent than Goyle and in 1996 he seems to quarrel with Malfoy for the first time, for a reward.

His and Goyle's personalities are sometimes questioned by some readers, as Slytherins are typically described as "cunning", though the fact they were sorted into Slytherin may have to do with having a desire for power and their belief in blood purity, which are often considered another Slytherin trait. His belief is so strong, in fact, that he attempted to murder Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley for being a muggle-born and blood traitor, respectively. It is also possible that they do not fit into the other houses as well as they fit into Slytherin, or that they requested the Sorting Hat to specifically place them there as Harry and Hermione did for Gryffindor.

Near the presumed end of his life, Crabbe proved to be a deadly dark wizard, being able to use powerful curses. He also seemed to change for the worse, as he defied Draco knowing that the Malfoy clan has lost its influence and prestige in both the wizarding world and Voldemort's eyes and that nothing can be gained from being affiliated with them anymore, and was not above torturing and killing fellow students. This differentiates him from Draco, who came to realise that he delved deeper into the Dark Arts than he wanted, while Crabbe was clearly enjoying the power and sadistic cruelty. However, he also became reckless, and neglected the potency of his Dark Arts, releasing cursed flames to incinerate his opponents that he couldn't control, which led to his demise.

Magical abilities and skills

Vincent Crabbe's wand

Quidditch: Crabbe played Beater for the Slytherin Quidditch Team. He was chosen for his size and strength rather than skill. He showed poor sportsmanship, as he sent a Bludger at Harry after the Snitch had already been caught.

Behind the scenes

He is portrayed as a more comedic character in the films, the shorter and fatter of Malfoy's bodyguards. The more comedic punishments for the Slytherins' wrongdoing seem to go to him. In the fourth film, when Malfoy is turned into a ferret by Bartemius Crouch Jr., masquerading as Mad-Eye Moody, the ferret is thrown into Crabbe's trousers, clawing away at his legs. Jamie Waylett who plays Crabbe had to wear two pairs of trousers so that the ferret did not cause any injury, earlier in the film the spider was thrown on to Crabbe's head and he groans out of disgust and fear. Indeed, in the film adaptation of the third novel, Harry is messing with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle while under his invisibility cloak, under the pretense of being a vicious ghost, he pulls down Crabbe's trousers and kicks him on his backside when Crabbe tries and fails to pull them back up. Malfoy runs away screaming, and he pushes Crabbe down again, who is struggling to get to his feet and pull up his trousers. He eventually gets up and has to crawl away from the scene, trousers forgotten, and his underpants and legs showing. In the original novel, Harry had thrown mud at the threesome and thrown a tree branch at Crabbe. This scene was relived somewhat in the fifth film, albeit that it was Fred and George Weasley who caused the mayhem. The fireworks set off by the Weasley twins target the Slytherin threesome. One particularly overambitious firework goes after Goyle, who pushes it away. It chases after Crabbe, who is running, yelling, away. The firework is ultimately too fast, and it shoves his backside, reminiscent of the kicking scene. In the second film, when the school is cheering for Rubeus Hagrid, Crabbe gets up to cheer, but is pulled down by Malfoy looking embarrassed. Another somewhat comedic portrayal of Crabbe is in the third film, in which Malfoy, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, Pike and other Slytherins imitate Dementors with hoods and robes. Crabbe imitates a Dementor like the others, but has neither hood nor robe on, and therefore doesn't even slightly resemble a Dementor.